How to Play River
River
At this moment you already know the final combination of your cards and have to make a decision how to play River. Your major task is to guess what sort of hands your opponents were trying to get and whether they succeeded. Insofar in the previous turns you were suppose to find the reasons to pass, taking under consideration the bank value, this time you should rather look for the reason to keep playing.
First of all, you need to answer the question whether your opponents managed to set the intended hand and if so, whether it’s stronger than yours. You can win even with the average or relatively bad cards (for example one high Pair) when they were drawing to Flush or Straight but didn’t collect the whole hand. But on the other hand, if you were drawing to the highest hand and the last card helped rather your opponents than you, just pass - without any consideration.
You should also pay attention to your opponents’ characteristics, which can help you much how to play River. If they bluff rarely but play aggressively on River, it means that most probably they’ve got very strong cards and you should consider further playing carefully, unless you have got the strongest hand. Afterwards, if your opponents often bluff, you can win even with medium cards even though they kept raising the bet.
Very good or best cards - 1 opponent:
Your main task is to increase the Pot. If you are the one to start then raise the bet (Bet) and try not to frighten your opponents too much. If you bid as the second one, then raise a bet (Raise). Playing against a person who often bluffs can be an exception. Then it’s worth to wait (Check) and hope that he raises the bet and at the same time you will manage to increase the Pot.
Very good or best cards - several opponents:
Situation similar to the above-mentioned one. The only difference is that when you bid second, it’s better to continue the game without raising (Call) in order not to frighten the succeeding opponents. It’s better to take two bets from two players than a double from one player. It is so, as in the case of failure you loose only one own bet instead of two.
Average or bad cards - 1 opponent:
When your cards are not the best but there is a chance to win, you should head to the final at the lowest cost possible adjusting your play to your opponents (Chack or Call).
Average or weak cards - several opponents:
As numerous players tightly limit the odds, having average cards you should try to eliminate as many opponents as you can. In connection with that, it’s worth to consider raising a bet (Raise), if you predict that some part of the players might pass. In the opposite situation Check or Call.
Worst cards:
Sometimes it will happen that in previous rounds you were drawing cards to get the specific combination and it just did not happen and that’s why you have no chance to win. In such a case you shouldn’t hesitate to pass to save at least a few last bets.
Please note that in the majority of cases getting to a River you’re going to have better cards than your opponents. Many people play with both, bad and strong cards, and as the matter of fact you play with the strong ones only, so statistically coming to a River you should win. The last situation described above is an exception. But you will know in advance that you have got no chance to win and just stop playing.
Enough theory and now check the tricks applied by the experienced players...
